The arbitrary drawing of borders during the colonial era has had a lasting and detrimental impact on the African continent. The "Scramble for Africa," which began with the Berlin Conference (1884-85) and concluded by the early twentieth century, saw European powers divide Africa into spheres of influence, colonies, and various segments. These borders, designed in European capitals with limited knowledge of the geography, history, and ethnic composition of Africa, continue to shape the socio-political landscape of many African nations today.
Pictured here is a map of the Partition of Africa.
The Berlin Conference and the Scramble for Africa
The Berlin Conference legitimized the partition of Africa; colonizers designed regional maps without providing any notification to the local African rulers, and made treaties among colonial powers to avoid resource competition.
The borders were designed in European capitals at a time when Europeans had barely settled in Africa with little knowledge of the geography and ethnic composition of the areas whose borders were designing. Colonial powers employed underhand mechanisms in territorial acquisition and boundary making such as deceit, fraud, intimidation, and bribery.
However, many errors were made due to their superficial knowledge of the continent and undeveloped maps in existence. European powers completed cartographic surveys of territories through boundary commissions from 1900-1930, which allowed for total control of colonies.
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Impact on Ethnic Groups and Communities
Artificial borders split many closely related ethnic groups into different colonial regions. In many African countries, a significant portion of their population belongs to groups split by colonial partitions. However, these surveys focused solely on land control and disregarded the impacts of partitioning on ethnic groups.
In the Horn of Africa, for instance, they split Somalis into French Somaliland, British Somalia, Italian Somalia, Ethiopian Somalia, and the Somali region of northern Kenya. Such colonial borders had massive effects on the Somali people, who share a common culture, way of life, and religion, but live as separate citizens of Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya.
Following artificial border designs, African communities could not move freely in their daily activities and nomadic practices, which inflicted economic hardship and social inconvenience. For example, many Africans are pastoralist and nomadic people that need vast land for grazing and water. Changing the lifestyle and structural systems of African communities negatively affected their traditional life, administrative structures, and economic well-being.
This deprived African borderland communities of economic opportunity by hindering their movements, and forcing them to live differently than their traditional life.
Colonial Policies and Their Consequences
Besides improperly designed borders, European colonial powers employed "divide and rule," "direct rule," and "assimilation" policies, which forced the loss of social norms, identity, and social order among Africans. Moreover, these policies instigated conflicts among local people, dividing them even further and consequently strengthening colonial power.
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Some political elites in Africa affiliate more along ethnic lines, and play crucial roles in fueling tensions and escalating political disenfranchisement. Despite the effects of colonization and artificial borders on borderland communities, African political leaders have not alleviated these problems but rather used them as political instruments.
A Brief History of The Scramble For Africa
The Enduring Legacy of Artificial Borders
Improper border design and the partitioning of ethnic groups have contributed to underdevelopment and instability in African states. The lack of economic, social, and political development and limited upward mobility expose borderland communities to a number of problems, including widespread poverty, lack of infrastructure, limited education, and cross-border conflicts.
Quantifying the effects of the Scramble for Africa requires identifying the partitioned groups. Our procedure identifies most major partitioned ethnic groups. For example, the Maasai have been split between Kenya (62%) and Tanzania (38%), the Anyi between Ghana (58%) and the Ivory Coast (42%), and the Chewa between Mozambique (50%), Malawi (34%), and Zimbabwe (16%).
In the first part of our empirical analysis we formally establish border artificiality. With the sole exceptions of the size of the historical homeland and area under water, we are unable to detect any other significant differences between partitioned and non-partitioned ethnicities with respect to a variety of geographical and ecological characteristics as well as regarding early development and early contact with Europeans.
Using detailed data on the location, duration, and total casualties of all civil wars in Africa in the post-independence period (1970-2005), we show that civil conflict is concentrated in the historical homeland of partitioned ethnicities. Besides quantifying the direct effect of ethnic partitioning on conflict, we document significant spillovers to areas adjacent to split ethnicities.
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The deleterious consequences of partitioning are not limited to the homeland of split ethnic groups. Tribal areas adjacent to the ethnic homeland of partitioned groups also experience more civil wars, which tend to last longer and be more devastating.
A roundabout in downtown Yaounde showcases Cameroon’s love for country and promotion of bilingualism which the government is banking on to unite the troubled country.
Case Study: Cameroon
After European powers split up Africa during the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference, Cameroon became a German protectorate until after World War I (WWI), when it was carved up between Britain and France. When the English and French first partitioned the country in 1919, Tanjuh’s community found itself torn apart.
As the years progressed, the divide became more than merely physical - also linguistic and cultural. After independence in the 1960s, Cameroon maintained its French-majority culture, while those in the Anglophone regions felt increasingly marginalised. This escalated, eventually manifesting in a violent conflict between Anglophone armed separatists and Francophone state-armed troops, which has killed more than 6,500 and displaced about 700,000 people in the southwest and northwest of the country since late 2016.
The Picot Line, named after French representative Georges Picot arbitrarily split Cameroonian communities that shared common ethnic, linguistic and cultural heritage. As a result, communities like the Mbo people, for example, speak English in the Kupe Muanenguba Division but French just across the Mungo River.
The colonial legacy - particularly the forced imposition of artificial borders that disregarded ethnic and cultural realities - disrupted natural state formations, divided families and fostered tensions that persist today. These borders continue to shape Cameroon’s socio-political landscape.
Muangwekan belonged to British Southern Cameroons at the time. For Chief Atabe and his people, the proposal is more than just a bureaucratic shift - it threatens the village’s historical identity and cultural heritage, a lingering consequence of colonial-era partitions that continue to shape Cameroon’s geopolitical landscape.
Reflecting on the past, he lamented the effect of colonial divisions: “The disappearance of the German administration caused us many problems. It was difficult to separate one people into two.”
Chief Atabe Emmanuel Ndonjume, traditional ruler of Muangwekan village in the English-speaking Southwest region, taps a concrete marker once used to delineate British territory, perched on a hill overlooking Muangwekan as villagers gathered around.
The Way Forward
Across the continent, ethnic and cultural divisions persist as a result of lines drawn arbitrarily on a map by foreigners who did not consult any Africans when carving up their territories. When people share a culture, it distinguishes them, and cultural values are difficult to erase.
While many worry that the road to unity remains elusive, Takougang and Nkwi both say that Cameroon’s future depends on genuine dialogue, political will, and an honest reckoning with its colonial past. Without these, the nation risks remaining trapped in a cycle of division and instability.
Government Bilingual Practising School Muangwekan, on the eastern fringes of Muangwekan village, allows schoolchildren to learn in English and French.
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